lawschoolornothing wrote:So all the acceptances are via email? If my status says "Decision Processed" and no email, does that mean it's a deny? Thanks.

Mine changed to "decision processed" yesterday, and I have yet to receive an email as well. From what I have read in previous posts, it can take a couple days for the email to come.

Thanks. I called them and they said the letter is normally sent two days after the status changes hopefully the same as emails. Mine also changed yesterday. You have really good scores so hopefully since I am in the same batch as you that I also got in.

lawlec48 wrote:Besides Whiskey, has anyone else sent in their seat deposit?

Paid mine via DU webCentral a couple days ago.

There was an option to pay directly from your bank account, so I went with that. Strangely, I haven't received a notification e-mail, nor has the money been deducted from my account yet. Anybody go this route? I'm probably going to call admissions tomorrow and see what's up.

p.s. The payment processing directs you to a third party site, so perhaps this is what's causing the delay.

goflmarlins wrote:I have the same problem. Denver is my second choice and I also have to accept financial aid, but my April 22. I already sent in my seat deposit bc the school I'm waitlisted on doesn't think they will look at the wait list for another week. I don't think it is binding... Or least I hope not. My advice send in the seat deposit and accept financial aid. I'm emailing financial aid to ask for an extention to accept.

Regarding financial aid, I've had the "good fortune" to take out financial aid for ALL my college endeavors, so I can give you a little information. Although i would suggest double checking the fine print, nothing that I noticed stated anything about either the seat deposit or the financial aid being binding. Remember, there is a second seat deposit, which leads me to believe that they anticipate some people jumping ship later as WL come and go. Regarding the FIN AID, you can always accept the loans and then decline or have the loans returned if you chose not to use them or do not need them. Now I have never had to accept fin aid from more than one school, so I assumed you would just need to tell DU that you no longer need the FIN AID once you are in at your #1 school.

Although DU is my #1, I am waitlisted at my #1a, So I could be in the same boat as both of you if I was to hear back, but I accepted my FIN AID and sent in the first seat deposit to ensure my seat and finances were set for DU, of which there is about a 98% chance I will be attending next year.

Okay, so I accepted the Terms & Conditions. But, I still have to accept the actual award amounts. Denver did not email me back regarding my questions about financial aid, so I will try to call them tomorrow. Can anybody confirm that accepting award amounts are not binding since we still have to fill out forms and sign a Master Promissory Note, etc?

First post on my advice for the incoming DU class this fall (or any a school for that matter). This will be a series of posts as I find time to the write them based on my personal experiences, those of the people I know well and the advice I have gotten from lawyers and judges whose opinions I have found through the years to be pretty damn solid. Some of this will work for some of some will not, your mileage may vary, my views represent solely what I have done that has worked (and what has not) and is based primarily on setting yourself up so that by graduation you either have a job or have an easy task of finding a job. The truth of the matter is that most grads (at most schools) don't have this at graduation, mostly because they really have no idea how to find a job if the school does not hand them one.

The first and most important point of all: the goal of law school, beyond grades, beyond learning the law, beyond passing the bar is to get a job as a lawyer. Never forget that, and certainly don't think that can become a priority later on like 2L or 3L, it needs to start the DAY YOU START LAW SCHOOL.

Second point, don't rely on the school to find you a job. For most of you this will NOT be the end result. The schools primary purpose is to teach you what you need to know to get the JD. Job placement is secondary, its a school, not a career fair. Go in knowing you will need to, and have better success if you do, create your own destiny and you will be well ahead of the curve of your classmates.

Finally networking is KEY in Denver. Who you know beats everything else. Its the Royal Flush of landing a job in the Denver market at a huge firm or a small firm or even starting your own firm.

What networking is NOT - networking is not getting some lawyers card at an event after you talked to him for 10 mins then never speaking to the guy again. Networking IS developing long term relationships with people in the legal community over the entire span of your 3-4 years in law school. its keeping those contacts active and meeting with those people on a regular basis all through LS. Its building up your relationship credits well in advance before you need a job so that than when you do your friends will WANT to help you and not feel like you're just using them for a connection.

This TAKES TIME. and it takes EFFORT and its takes GETTING OUT OF THE SCHOOL and getting INVOLVED IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY. Hence why you need to start from day 1. I knew exactly one person in Denver when I moved here and the only connection this guy ever had to the law was being arrested a few times. All my contacts I met while in law school, you can do the same.

True story - this happened to me a few years ago. Was having lunch with a Judge friend of mine and just happen to mention I was interested in a large firm in town for trying for a summer job since they had a well known specialty area I was interested in. As soon as I said the name of the firm, lets call it Smith and Jones, the Judge said, oh you want an interview there? I was like yea, that would be great. his response OK, I've know Jones (named partner) for 30 years, he was in my wedding I'll set up lunch for the three of us this Friday. We all had lunch, and at the end of lunch I had an offer without going through OCi, without going through a screening interview, without even giving the guy my resume. That's how you get things done in Denver.

Next post some suggestions for getting involved and how/where to meet lawyers and judges that can become your mentors.

Matthies wrote:First post on my advice for the incoming DU class this fall (or any a school for that matter). This will be a series of posts as I find time to the write them based on my personal experiences, those of the people I know well and the advice I have gotten from lawyers and judges whose opinions I have found through the years to be pretty damn solid. Some of this will work for some of some will not, your mileage may vary, my views represent solely what I have done that has worked (and what has not) and is based primarily on setting yourself up so that by graduation you either have a job or have an easy task of finding a job. The truth of the matter is that most grads (at most schools) don't have this at graduation, mostly because they really have no idea how to find a job if the school does not hand them one.

The first and most important point of all: the goal of law school, beyond grades, beyond learning the law, beyond passing the bar is to get a job as a lawyer. Never forget that, and certainly don't think that can become a priority later on like 2L or 3L, it needs to start the DAY YOU START LAW SCHOOL.

Second point, don't rely on the school to find you a job. For most of you this will NOT be the end result. The schools primary purpose is to teach you what you need to know to get the JD. Job placement is secondary, its a school, not a career fair. Go in knowing you will need to, and have better success if you do, create your own destiny and you will be well ahead of the curve of your classmates.

Finally networking is KEY in Denver. Who you know beats everything else. Its the Royal Flush of landing a job in the Denver market at a huge firm or a small firm or even starting your own firm.

What networking is NOT - networking is not getting some lawyers card at an event after you talked to him for 10 mins then never speaking to the guy again. Networking IS developing long term relationships with people in the legal community over the entire span of your 3-4 years in law school. its keeping those contacts active and meeting with those people on a regular basis all through LS. Its building up your relationship credits well in advance before you need a job so that than when you do your friends will WANT to help you and not feel like you're just using them for a connection.

This TAKES TIME. and it takes EFFORT and its takes GETTING OUT OF THE SCHOOL and getting INVOLVED IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY. Hence why you need to start from day 1. I knew exactly one person in Denver when I moved here and the only connection this guy ever had to the law was being arrested a few times. All my contacts I met while in law school, you can do the same.

True story - this happened to me a few years ago. Was having lunch with a Judge friend of mine and just happen to mention I was interested in a large firm in town for trying for a summer job since they had a well known specialty area I was interested in. As soon as I said the name of the firm, lets call it Smith and Jones, the Judge said, oh you want an interview there? I was like yea, that would be great. his response OK, I've know Jones (named partner) for 30 years, he was in my wedding I'll set up lunch for the three of us this Friday. We all had lunch, and at the end of lunch I had an offer without going through OCi, without going through a screening interview, without even giving the guy my resume. That's how you get things done in Denver.

Next post some suggestions for getting involved and how/where to meet lawyers and judges that can become your mentors.

Thanks for sharing, Matthies - this is definitely solid advice. It's nice to get an inside perspective to the Denver legal culture beyond DU itself. Looking forward to further posts!

Matthies wrote:First post on my advice for the incoming DU class this fall (or any a school for that matter). This will be a series of posts as I find time to the write them based on my personal experiences, those of the people I know well and the advice I have gotten from lawyers and judges whose opinions I have found through the years to be pretty damn solid. Some of this will work for some of some will not, your mileage may vary, my views represent solely what I have done that has worked (and what has not) and is based primarily on setting yourself up so that by graduation you either have a job or have an easy task of finding a job. The truth of the matter is that most grads (at most schools) don't have this at graduation, mostly because they really have no idea how to find a job if the school does not hand them one.

The first and most important point of all: the goal of law school, beyond grades, beyond learning the law, beyond passing the bar is to get a job as a lawyer. Never forget that, and certainly don't think that can become a priority later on like 2L or 3L, it needs to start the DAY YOU START LAW SCHOOL.

Second point, don't rely on the school to find you a job. For most of you this will NOT be the end result. The schools primary purpose is to teach you what you need to know to get the JD. Job placement is secondary, its a school, not a career fair. Go in knowing you will need to, and have better success if you do, create your own destiny and you will be well ahead of the curve of your classmates.

Finally networking is KEY in Denver. Who you know beats everything else. Its the Royal Flush of landing a job in the Denver market at a huge firm or a small firm or even starting your own firm.

What networking is NOT - networking is not getting some lawyers card at an event after you talked to him for 10 mins then never speaking to the guy again. Networking IS developing long term relationships with people in the legal community over the entire span of your 3-4 years in law school. its keeping those contacts active and meeting with those people on a regular basis all through LS. Its building up your relationship credits well in advance before you need a job so that than when you do your friends will WANT to help you and not feel like you're just using them for a connection.

This TAKES TIME. and it takes EFFORT and its takes GETTING OUT OF THE SCHOOL and getting INVOLVED IN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY. Hence why you need to start from day 1. I knew exactly one person in Denver when I moved here and the only connection this guy ever had to the law was being arrested a few times. All my contacts I met while in law school, you can do the same.

True story - this happened to me a few years ago. Was having lunch with a Judge friend of mine and just happen to mention I was interested in a large firm in town for trying for a summer job since they had a well known specialty area I was interested in. As soon as I said the name of the firm, lets call it Smith and Jones, the Judge said, oh you want an interview there? I was like yea, that would be great. his response OK, I've know Jones (named partner) for 30 years, he was in my wedding I'll set up lunch for the three of us this Friday. We all had lunch, and at the end of lunch I had an offer without going through OCi, without going through a screening interview, without even giving the guy my resume. That's how you get things done in Denver.

Next post some suggestions for getting involved and how/where to meet lawyers and judges that can become your mentors.

Thanks for sharing, Matthies - this is definitely solid advice. It's nice to get an inside perspective to the Denver legal culture beyond DU itself. Looking forward to further posts!

+1 Million, really looking forward to all the advice and incite to come!!!

During orientation week in the main forum area (if you visited the campus this is the area where the tables are and the big wide hall that leads through the building from the front doors, its named after Dean Yegge who was a great man I had the pleasure of taking a class with before he died, well he actually died during our class, but he was the best of the best) there will be booths for all types of student groups and organizations. They will have info about joining, about law reviews, about moot court, about everything. There will be one booth with almost no students at it. This is the American Bar Association booth. GO TO IT. Everyone else will ignore it, watch, tell me if I'm wrong.

Anyway the ABA is the national organization for lawyers. It's not that great for local networking, but by joining you get some resources that I found very valuable. Its $25 (or was when I joined) and for that you get a magazine called 'Student Lawyer" which is pretty good and always has some decent tips, tricks and advice on law school, hot practice areas, legal writing, job tips ect.

You also get the ABA magazine which is really good for finding out what is actually going on in the real legal world. Places like Above the Law are great if you plan to work at a huge firm in NYC but completely useless for info about the profession for 99.9% of the rest of us. The ABA rags are much better for knowing what's really going on, what the trends are ect.

If you want to join a particular section group, like say the Environmental law Section or the Trial lawyers Section that might add 10-15 dollars each section to your membership. No real reason to do this now unless you know you want to practice X. You will also get the ABA e-mail newsletters and a chance to be part of the ABA government as a student representative if you wish. Again not all that helpful for Denver stuff, but worth the $25 a year if for nothing more than learning the lingo and how the profession actually works outside in the real world. Join if you can unless your flat ass broke.

The CBA (or the Colorado Bar Association) join this. There won't a be a booth at the school likely, and you don't even need to wait till school starts, just as soon as you get your law.du.edu email join. ITS FREAKING FREE. Sadly most of your classmates won't even know it exists till like 2L. Join it. Why law students don't join the local bar association of the profession they want to enter is beyond me, but most don't.

Again if you want to join specific sections that will cost extra, no need yet unless you know for sure you want to practice X. Once you join and get your membership number go to the website and join as many of the free list servers as you can. Young lawyers Division is good, Student Section is good, Jobs one is good (jobes one now lets you see what types of jobs are being offered, what skills are requested and who's highering, good info to keep tabs on all through law school to spot trends/firms for later research). The CBA sends out weekly e-mail newsletters that list all the upcoming events and functions, this will be critical for networking (more on the where/when/how in later posts). Membership website: --LinkRemoved--

(DBA) Denver Bar Association your membership in the CBA includes membership in one of the local bar associations, for most of you, you will want to choose the Denver bar Association, but if you want to work elsewhere in the state then choose to join that bar association imstead so you get info on what's going on there function and event wise that you could attend.

(SBA) Student Bar Association - the names kind of a misnomer, it's really the student government. It's pretty much just the school, and you will be working with the school and other law students, Great if your a student government type, and they do work their ass off for us students, but you're not going to be meeting many working lawyers or judges through the SBA, mostly just other law students. Good organization, join if you wish get involved, JUST REMEMBER TO GET OUT OF THE SCHOOL AND MEET WORKING LAWYERS AND JUDGES. Networking with your classmates is great, but they won't have jobs to offer you and may even be competing with your for the same job. Just something to consider. The SBA is NOT a replacement for joing the CBA is what I am trying to say (but you can do both, nothing wrong with that so long as you remember what I wrote in all caps above!)

A note on student groups. They are great ways to get to know about a field of law, to meet people with similar interests and to make friends. I encourage you look around and maybe join a few BUT REMEMBER YOUR NETWORKING SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL. You need to meet real lawyers and judges too, not sjut law students. You also don't have to join up right away, you can join most student groups anytime.

PRO TIP: Almost every student group will have regular meetings between noon-1Pm at least once a month and they invite everyone to come (there is at least one like everyday for some group). Go to these, see what they are about. But the biggest tip: THEY GIVE U FREE FOOD! I'm a pasty white fat guy, but I went to the Black Students Association meetings, the Gay Students Associations Meeting, the Lantino/a, the Women's Student Association, the Law Republicans, the Law Demarcates, hell if we had a commie group I would have gone to that too. Why? Because I did not pay for lunch for two years straight They ALWAYS HAVE MORE FOOD THEN THEY NEED, you will see leftovers in every classroom. So go, eat their food, listen to their speech and join up if you like. But seriously if you do it right there is no reason you need to ever buy lunch agan.

Personal example of the above suggestions two: When you fill out your bar app you need to list 3 or 4 (can't remember) lawyers or judges as personal references. I was shocked, stunned, and a bit outraged at how many of my intelligent, hard working well meaning classmates could not find three lawyers or judges they knew well enough do this after four years in law school (I was in the part-time program). Seriously WTF. The most common reason for this was while they had internships or clerking jobs they never really connected with their employers, or stayed connected after they left. That, or just as common, there were so involved in school groups they never got out into the real legal world to meet actual people who were already lawyers and judges. Don't fall in that trap. Be active in school, but make time to be active in the real legal community as well, that pays off more in the long run.

lawlec48 wrote:Besides Whiskey, has anyone else sent in their seat deposit?

Paid mine via DU webCentral a couple days ago.

There was an option to pay directly from your bank account, so I went with that. Strangely, I haven't received a notification e-mail, nor has the money been deducted from my account yet. Anybody go this route? I'm probably going to call admissions tomorrow and see what's up.

p.s. The payment processing directs you to a third party site, so perhaps this is what's causing the delay.

Update: E-mailed admissions and they asked if I received a confirmation e-mail from afford.com (the payment processor). Checked my spam folder (gmail account) and it turns out I did. So if you use this option to pay be sure to check that folder.

i just pooped my pants in fear. (not really, but that does make me all shook up)

The letter mentioned the high volume of qualified applicants and their limited number of seats. Sounds like a standard WL letter, but they may truly be running low on spaces. They said they will reevaluate after the first seat deposit deadline (4/29). I'm going to withdraw though.

i just pooped my pants in fear. (not really, but that does make me all shook up)

The letter mentioned the high volume of qualified applicants and their limited number of seats. Sounds like a standard WL letter, but they may truly be running low on spaces. They said they will reevaluate after the first seat deposit deadline (4/29). I'm going to withdraw though.